tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-434701420960162731.post7234994806060533820..comments2015-03-02T10:32:24.088+00:00Comments on The British GENES Blog (GEnealogy News &amp; EventS): FindmyPast creates customer participation groupChris Patonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05073425769475523109noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-434701420960162731.post-45095868671568157852014-05-15T11:16:06.714+01:002014-05-15T11:16:06.714+01:00Strikes me FindmyPast has become a huge brick wall...Strikes me FindmyPast has become a huge brick wall in itself, plastered over with a daily 100 dosage of frills and furbelows with no-one left traceable upon whom to bestow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-434701420960162731.post-8428917681310460552014-05-15T09:05:16.535+01:002014-05-15T09:05:16.535+01:00Excellent article. This summarises exactly what I...Excellent article. This summarises exactly what I feel about the whole debacle - we could have ridden out the changes and worked with FMP towards developing a more user-friendly site, BUT, their response to customers&#39; queries and frustration was so appalling and dismissive. I have previously described it as disregard, disrespect, and disdain. It ranged from condescending emails saying that the changes may be hard to understand, to switching off their phone lines, to ignoring (or failing to respond to) customers&#39; submissions on the Feedback Forum of their own website, to banning subscribers from their Facebook pages and lying about doing it. <br /><br />I have no doubt that they knew the new site was problematic before it was rolled out, but that they also thought those problems could be &quot;tweaked&quot; or &quot;patched&quot; within a couple of months - hence giving people the 2 month subscription extension. We are now 8 weeks on from the new site being rolled out, and things are still poor. For a simple example, they amended the search boxes on the GRO Births search page. It ended up with a box for When Born, and another for Year of Birth. What sort of understanding/mentality does that and doesn&#39;t see the obvious error? And what sort of company does not have the checks and balances in place so that it is picked up BEFORE it goes live? I have found results that come back so poorly laid out that you have no option but to trawl through every one of them to try to find the person you are looking for - no other information shown (although it is in the record and transcription) to help narrow things down. They are doing themselves no favours with a lot of what they are doing, and I do wonder if the system redesign / reprogramming is beyond the capabilities of their existing staff. It is only recently that they advertised for more high-end programmer/developer type posts.<br /><br />At present, it appears to be mainly on hold. This new Customer Participation Group is conspicuous by its absence, but tomorrow IS another day, and tomorrow is the day when Annelies van den Belt releases her weekly statement. (The cynic in me wonders how many more weeks this will go on for before they decide to drop it, or it slips to fortnightly.)Margaret Hirstnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-434701420960162731.post-56856553882876360692014-05-08T22:24:12.831+01:002014-05-08T22:24:12.831+01:00Many thanks for raising this Chris. Not &quot;con...Many thanks for raising this Chris. Not &quot;contraversial&quot; at all, given the subject of the discussion. I still have a month on my FMP subscription and am struggling to squeeze out even the basic information from their &quot;improved&quot; site. Written in Klingon just about sums it up . . .Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-434701420960162731.post-52784754856241840982014-05-08T14:32:23.666+01:002014-05-08T14:32:23.666+01:00Perfect precis of events. I hope they read and dig...Perfect precis of events. I hope they read and digest - then act, fast!<br />I had a telephone conversation with Annelies vd Belt and Paul Yates, they listened and agreed with most of my points. They could give me no time frames for when issues will be corrected. Whilst they are rebuilding and tweaking, subscriptions are fast running out. They have given some users, me included, two month extensions and this offer should extend to all who subscribed to the old platform not just those who rattle cages. Two months probably won&#39;t be enough though and it no major improvements have been made, I&#39;ll be asking for further extensions. It&#39;s going to cost them but that&#39;s their own fault.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-434701420960162731.post-27181822709634504042014-05-08T13:57:55.392+01:002014-05-08T13:57:55.392+01:00the biggest PR disaster on that front must surely ... the biggest PR disaster on that front must surely have been the attitude of FindmyPast to its customer base when it launched its new platform - apparent arrogance does not even begin to start covering it. THIS is what annoyed me more than the awful, so called new FMP itself. It didn&#39;t matter how you contacted FMP - through Help, Facebook page etc. The replies were never &#39;we are sorry&#39; and you were treated with contempt. My auto renewal is OFF.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-434701420960162731.post-75375967042888953002014-05-08T13:32:17.107+01:002014-05-08T13:32:17.107+01:00Well said, hear hear, I second that, etc etcWell said, hear hear, I second that, etc etcAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com